Monday, Nov. 02, 1970

Golddiggers of 1773

By T.E.K.

Broadway's mascot is the golden calf. Few families in history ever fatted up the golden calf to such imposing dimensions as The Rothschilds. In this musical, Broadway is really worshiping its fondest dreams.

Beyond the invincible rags-to-riches theme, The Rothschilds also has ethnic appeal: it is a quest for manhood and release from the oppression that Jews suffered in the ghettos of Europe.

In brisk, broad strokes, the musical describes how Mayer Rothschild (Hal Linden) discovered a path out of the ghetto at the Frankfurt Fair of 1773, where he began trading in rare coins. When his sons came of age, he managed to install them as bankers to Prince William of Hesse (Keene Curtis). At the onset of the Napoleonic Wars, the five sons were dispatched to the fiscal centers of Europe. Eventually, they amassed the kind of money that made the House of Rothschild a greater power than any power in Europe.

The Rothschilds is not a top-drawer musical. It is not exciting or innovative, but it is a pleasant way to while away an evening. The Sheldon Harnick-Jerry Bock score neatly dovetails into the book, but it lacks any single rousing number like "Tradition" from their Fiddler on the Roof score. Hal Linden is warmly convincing as a Jewish Joe Kennedy. Except for Nathan Rothschild (Paul Hecht), the brother in London, the sons are not individually distinct. Absent from the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theater are two favorite Rothschilds--Mouton and Lafite.

T.E.K.

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